Ves dreamt of different trees in the night before his fleet was ready to launch its attack.

His active imagination produced many different varieties of trees. Tall trees, short trees, wide trees, narrow trees, burnt trees, purple trees and more whipped past his vision.

What kind of tree did he want to grow?

How should he develop his design philosophy?

He truly wasn't sure.

It was easy for him to visualize the trees of other mech designers such as Ketis, Master Olson and Professor Ventag. Each of their design philosophies already put them on the path to growing a specific tree.

Yet Ves was still confused about the growth of his own one. It was not as if he lacked some solid goals. He just felt that multiple approaches were viable. Either of the two most common trees could become a good fit depending on how he wanted to develop his specialty.

When he woke up in the bed of his stateroom, he came no closer to resolving his doubts. This annoyed him quite a bit, even though Master Willix told him not to overthink this matter.

So far, he believed his development trajectory equated best to a short but wide tree. Though Ves felt a bit doubtful about growing a height-challenged tree, if this was how his specialty in the future, then it was best not to resist this trend.

"Who cares if my tree is short." He muttered under his breath. "The total volume of my tree is not any worse than a tall and narrow tree!"

He rose from his bed and followed his usual morning routine. His grooming bot took exceeding care in shaving off his stubble. Since today was the day that Task Force Predator launched its attack on Ulimo Citadel, Ves wanted to make sure he presented himself at his best!

After enjoying a brief breakfast, he strode to the bridge where Major Verle was already in the process of putting all of the pieces in place.

"Good morning, sir." Verle greeted him. "The Avatars, Sentinels, Battle Criers, Vandals and Swordmaidens are in the process of prepping and launching their mechs for battle. The Penitent Sisters are taking a little longer. The women have wasted too much time on their prayers this morning."

"Huh?"

"Apparently, they wish to gain the Superior Mother's blessing."

Ves chuckled at that. "The Superior Mother is asleep right now. They should try again later."

He sat down at the central seat that Major Verle vacated and watched the bridge officers make their final preparations.

The bridge of the Scarlet Rose was not exactly set up to direct a major battle involving thousands of mechs on both sides. Therefore, after a brief chat with Ves, Major Verle departed to the hangar bay in order to transfer to the much larger Redfeather.

Ves patiently tapped the armrest of his seat. Hundreds of mechs launched into space. More were on their way, though the 'bandwidth' of the carrier sh.i.p.s constrained their launch speed.

As far as the Black Cats were aware of, the Dry Snakes and their underlings were capable of fielding up to 4300 mechs, though their variability was great. The greatest source of uncertainty came from the newly-erected Ulimo Militia which gathered a number of previously-independent pirate outfits.

The Mirror Raiders had become a part of the Ulimo Militia as well. It was one of the major reasons why the Larkinson Clan gained greater access to the pirate stronghold's defenses.

As for the Task Force Predator, the Avatars, Sentinels, Battle Criers, Vandals and Swordmaidens were only able to muster around 1300 mechs.

Of course, this did not take into account the Penitent Sisters. They had suffered the fewest losses of any mech force so far. Their amazingly resilient mechs bullied every pirate mech they encountered due to their impenetrable defenses.

The only way for pirates to defeat their second-class mechs was to employ their superweapons!.

This was why the Black Cats invested several weeks in undermining Ulimo Citadel's defenses.

A few minutes later, Calabast stopped by the bridge. Her black uniform caused a few people to turn their heads, though they quickly went back to their duties.

"Ves. The big day has come. Are you sure you want to proceed with this attack? Once you let your boys loose, you won't be able to go back."

"They aren't my boys. They are the soldiers of our clan. They fight on behalf of every Larkinson."

"Sure. Whatever you say, kid." Calabast crossed her arms. "Though we have managed to infiltrate many sections of Ulimo Citadel, not all of it is completely within our grasp. We cannot rule out the possibility that the pirates are still able to deploy weapons that are powerful enough to wipe out several of our mech companies at once."

Ves let out a deep breath. "I'm aware of the risks. I take responsibility for whatever consequence we suffer. I'm happy as long as we win this battle without losing the majority of our mech pilots."

In fact, even Task Force Predator lost 90 percent of its mech pilots, Ves could still live with the results!

He mainly wanted to preserve the expert candidates of his clan as well as some other key figures such as the Ingvar siblings and Dietrich.

As for everyone else, they were largely expendable in his eyes. Their lives and deaths only saddened him on a general basis. He doubted whether he would shed an actual tear.

The bigger reason why he wanted to avoid losing most of the lives of his clansmen was because he wanted to retain his standing in the clan.

It would become very hard to retain his position as clan patriarch if his decisions directly led to the deaths of more than a thousand Larkinsons!

Ves could easily imagine that more than 80 percent of the Larkinson Assembly would vote to strip him from his title!

Therefore, Ves was making a huge gamble right now.

Succeed, and his Larkinson Clan would be able to grow leaps and bounds after getting bloodied in a major battle.

Fail, and he would become subject to an incredible amount of condemnation. Regardless of how much money his design work generated for the clan, no amount of money was worth suffering such an immense amount of losses!

"This might be a good time to hold a speech." Calabast suggested. "While our mech pilots are already prepared to fight a tough and dangerous opponent, it helps to remind them what they are fighting for. We aren't an army defending our homes and family, you know. We are about to launch an unprovoked attack against strong and vicious pirates. While they doubtlessly deserve to get beaten, it's not our business to do the Big Two's dirty work."

She had a point. A speech might not make a big difference, but any improvement was welcome. If his Larkinsons fought a little bit harder, the pirates might collapse a bit earlier!

"Comms, please open a channel to every ship. I want to speak to every single Larkinson in the fleet."

It didn't take much time to set up the address. Thousands of projections of Ves appeared in front of the faces of every single Larkinson.

The clan patriarch, wearing his red-and-white patriarch uniform, had stood up from his seat and faced every Larkinson that was about to take part in the upcoming battle, whether directly or indirectly.

"Larkinsons." He began. "Today is the day we fight our most challenging battle to date. Think of who we fought to get here. Davy's Ghosts. The Rust Grinders. The Mountain Kings. The Crona Lords. All of these pirate groups and more have put up a fight against our clan, to no avail. Not even the powerful Allidus Alliance with their elite Allidus Archons managed to stop our rampage!"

Every Larkinson who listened to Ves felt proud at the mention of the defeated pirate groups. Task Force Predator did not disappoint its name! The Larkinsons eagerly hunted every pirate in their way.

Ves continued to speak.

"We have grown far beyond our initial battle against Davy's Ghosts. Do any of you still recall the disappointing performance of the rookies of the Living Sentinels? The leaderless mob of pirates almost managed to swarm our rookies to death!"

A lot of Larkinsons chuckled at the mention of this embarrassing event. If Ves spoke these words a month ago, he would have probably attracted a lot of animosity.

Not anymore. Even the rookie Sentinels joined in the laughter.

Each of them had grown immensely after learning that harsh lesson. They rookies quickly gained experience over the course of successive battles against pirates. Every other Larkinsons aside from the elite and battle-hardened veterans grew immensely over the course of just a couple of months.

If the Larkinson Clan went on this excursion, it would have taken years to come even close to reaching its current level of battle readiness!

In a way, Ves had already reached his goal of turning every Larkinson mech pilot into a bloodied soldier.

"Each of you has grown stronger. Our mechs may have remained the same, but our combat strength has soared! What makes us different from any other comparable organization is our willingness to fight!"

He raised his fist to emphasize his point!

"We are not cowards who shy away from battle as much as possible. Each of you have come with me to the Nyxian Gap, braving pirates and anomalies alike. Now, I ask you to prove your valor once more! Are you willing?!"

"YES!"

Thousands of Larkinsons roared their response! Voices echoed in the compartments and halls of every single Larkinson ship!

Ves grinned. "Good! I am proud to hear your eagerness to demolish the Nyxian pirates once again! Not only will we remove cancer from society, we will also be able to obtain an immense amount of plunder if we win! I promise you now that every single participant of this battle will be rewarded for their contributions. No matter the outcome of this battle, as long as we make it back, I promise to waive the cost of acquiring your first second-class gene mod template and implant! While it might take a lot of time to ensure that each of you will receive your augmentations, none of you will have to pay any hex credits or Larkinson merits to improve yourselves!"

If the earlier roar had shaken the sh.i.p.s, the ecstatic cries that erupted after he made his promise had metaphorically shaken the vessels to pieces!

No one despised this gift!

None of the Larkinsons wanted to refuse this golden offer!

To many of them, second-class implants were still out of their reach. It cost hundreds of Larkinson merits to obtain a decent set, and most clansmen needed at least a decade or two to acc.u.mulate the required merits!

To obtain them for free was an immensely generous gift that instantly supercharged the fighting spirit of every single Larkinson!

Ves unabashedly grinned. Forget about using empty words and platitudes to motivate his clansmen.

In his opinion, the best way to ensure they would do their best was to dangle an immensely juicy carrot in front of their faces!

Though he would certainly regret making this promise afterwards, he believed this investment was ultimately worth it. By empowering the participants of this excursion, the clan directly strengthened the capabilities of its most courageous and battle eager Larkinsons!

In the medium and long term, the braver Larkinsons would gain more prominence over the more cautious and risk-averse clansmen. This ensured that the people who were more aligned to his ideology eventually dominated the middle and upper levels of the Larkinson Clan in the future!

His expensive promise also sent out a signal to the entire clan that taking risks and enduring hardsh.i.p.s would always be rewarded. A proper Larkinson should be proactive rather than reactive.

"Now prepare to fight, my Larkinsons! Fight for your clan! Fight for your fellow Larkinsons! Fight for yourself, because each and every one of you will achieve greatness! This is my promise!"